Abstract
Background: Blood donation is a major concern to the society as donated blood is lifesaving for individuals who need it. In Pakistan, the concept of voluntary blood donors is almost non-existent due to the absence of blood donor motivation and retention strategies. The healthy, active and receptive huge student population can be potential blood donor to meet the safe blood requirements. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices about blood donation among undergraduate medical students in Karachi. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted in two public and one private medical college in Karachi from January to March 2012. A total of 600 medical students were interviewed with the help of structured questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 19. Multiple regressions were used to examine the effect of different independent variables on a single dependent variable to test the statistical significance at 95% confidence level. Results: The majority of participants (92%) had appropriate knowledge regarding the various aspects of blood donation. Attitude domain showed that around 42% of students were positive about blood donation. Around 50% of students showed willingness to donate blood. After adjusting for potential confounders, male gender was associated with appropriate knowledge, positive attitude and willingness for blood donation when compared against female gender. Conclusion: Good knowledge about blood donation practices is not transforming in donating blood. Interactive awareness sessions on blood donation should be organized during undergraduate years and opportunities for blood donation should be created for the students, which can greatly enhance the movement for “voluntary non-remunerated blood donation”, to ensure good quality of blood and safe modern medical care.
Highlights
Every second for every day, people around the world of all ages need blood transfusions to survive
All the participants were questioned to assess their knowledge about various aspects of blood donation and blood transfusion
The sum of responses was summarized as a knowledge score and a logistic regression analysis was done for age, gender, class year, medical colleges and place of residence
Summary
Every second for every day, people around the world of all ages need blood transfusions to survive. Millions of blood units were collected from donors every year but demands are increasing day by day that is pushing for sufficient and timely provision of blood [1]. Blood has been used since 1930 for various purposes [2]. In Pakistan more than 1.5 million pints of blood are collected each year. The use of whole blood is a well-accepted and commonly employed measure without which many modern surgical procedures could not be carried out [4]. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practices about blood donation among undergraduate medical students in Karachi
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